When the hierarchy of the National Association of Basketball Coaches met recently to discuss whether the NCAA should overturn the graduate transfer rule, they held their discussions in private. Oh, you bet they did. They issued no press releases regarding their talks. Of course they did not.

How, really, would even the most skilled public relations strategist have spun this?

How does one explain that the coaches — as a group — are campaigning to NCAA president Mark Emmert against a rule that emphasizes education, that rewards the successful pursuit of a degree, that reinforces the value of senior athletes?

All that is at work in the graduate transfer exception. To qualify to be immediately eligible upon transferring schools, the “student-athlete” must complete degree work at his current institution and then pursue an advanced degree at his new school.

How many graduate transfers made a substantial impact on the 2011-12 college basketball season? Unless you count Todd O’Brien, who became a celebrity when his eligibility at Alabama-Birmingham was not approved essentially because Saint Joseph’s did not sign off on it, there were precious few. Shooter Brandon Wood at Michigan State and — who, really? If he hadn’t been hurt so much of the year, point guard Sam Maniscalco might have helped Illinois, but he was, and he didn’t.

This spring, according to the list compiled by CBS Sports, roughly 410 Division I players have decided to transfer out of their current basketball programs. Of those, only 27 are expected to seek grad transfer waivers. So less than 7 percent of transfers fall into this category.

As well, most of these players are not significant talents. Only 11 of the 27 averaged more than a half-dozen points per game last season. There are eight on the list who didn’t average even a single basket.

Kent State coach Rob Senderoff said one of his players, 6-6 forward Patrick Jackson, is searching for a new home because he wasn’t likely to be happy playing 13 minutes a game again as a fifth-year senior.

It’s possible Jackson will wind up closer to closer to his Brooklyn home, perhaps at St. Peter’s.

“From his standpoint, I think he was going to be happier finding a place where he could have more individual success,” Senderoff told Sporting News. “I was very supportive of it. As a senior, you don’t want to have somebody who’s not going to be happy with their role on the team.

“I’m glad he gets this opportunity. He’ll be happier.”

Senderoff said he is pleased there is a rule clearly weighted in favor of the players given that “there are so many rules that don’t benefit kids.” He is concerned it will disproportionately damage mid-major programs, as with Mays leaving Wright State for Kentucky. But it also can help the little guy. Fairleigh Dickinson took erstwhile Louisville power forward George Goode last year and got 12.8 points and 7.4 rebounds per game from him.

Central Michigan coach Keno Davis is ambivalent about the rule.

“I don’t know if I can give you, 'I’m in favor of it, or against it,' ” he said. He explained coaches are worried they’ll invest four years in a player only to have him depart when he is prepared to do his best work.

That’s the thing, though. A lot of these players haven’t had four years invested in them by any one coaching staff. Of the 28 on the grad transfer list, 17 were in programs that underwent coaching changes during their careers. That’s more than 60 percent.

Most likely, a player in a stable program with a coach he knows and trusts and a successful, fulfilling four seasons is going to want a fifth year in the same situation, not the uncertainty of changing coaches, changing teammates and gambling his last year of NCAA eligibility on the possibility things might be even better elsewhere.

Many eligible for the grad transfer exception are players, like Jackson, who have spent four years on campus without making an impact in their current programs but who might have one last shot to fit in elsewhere and take a significant chunk out of a master’s degree while there.

It’s not easy to find a coach who’ll counter the opposition to the rule, though.

Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan has been quite vocally against it, even though the Badgers football program won the Big Ten championship while being led by grad transfer quarterback Russell Wilson. And Michigan State’s Tom Izzo grumbled about it all last season while Wood was making 3-pointers for his team. Izzo said he was worried it could become “a national problem” if eligible seniors began bolting their current programs for what appear to be more promising circumstances.

It’s impossible for the negatives to outweigh the positives because the positives involve players graduating and then pursuing meaningful post-graduate degrees.

Under normal circumstances, it’s not uncommon for a player who winds up on campus for a fifth season because of a medical hardship or a competitive redshirt to spend that year pursuing a second major — essentially doing the minimum to remain academically eligible, killing time between basketball practices and games.

That’s not an option under the grad transfer rule. A player must pursue an advanced degree. It’s right there in the rule. So if a player is not up for that coursework, he's not getting this break.

Opposing grad transfers would seem to be along the lines of crusading against puppies, love songs and green vegetables. The folks in the NABC call themselves “guardians of the game,” but that doesn’t seem to be what they’re protecting here.